The “sex school” in Kyrgyzstan’s capital that EurasiaNet.org profiled last year has moved to a bigger facility and opened a branch in neighboring Kazakhstan.
The Jade Gift School’s new location on Bishkek’s Bokonbaeva Street includes a larger gymnasium, where men and women learn to exercise muscles used during intercourse. There’s also now a separate room for theoretical instruction, such as courses on sexual fantasy and “playing the flue” – the school’s metaphor for oral sex. The school now also offers yoga, weight training, and customized workout trainings.
“I never expected this to become a full-time job,” confesses Jade Gift School founder and owner Rakhat Kenjebek kyzy, 31, describing how the school started out as a personal project rather than a business.
While working in China in the late-oughts, Kenjebek kyzy became acquainted with traditional treatments for women’s health. When she returned home, she started passing her knowledge around among friends. The circle of people seeking her advice grew wider and she eventually founded Jade Gift in 2011.
The school now employs three sales managers, a social media manager and five trainers. There are about 50 regular students; another 50 or so attend one-time events each month.
In this conservative country, many eschew talking openly about sex. But Kenjebek kyzy says some of her students are girls from religious families. Some confide that they attend classes because they are afraid their husbands will take second wives, she says. (Polygamy, though illegal, is increasingly common in Kyrgyzstan.)
“There is a passage in the Hadith, the teachings of the Prophet, that says women should be good wives, meaning they should be sexually educated. This is what we do,” explains Kenjebek kyzy, who also grew up in an observant Muslim household.
With a growing client base, finding enough qualified staff is tough. “It takes a year to instruct a trainer because our teachings are a new thing. We combine ancient methods based on the Chinese Tao of love or the Japanese art of the geisha with modern concepts as well as our own ideas,” Kenjebek kyzy says.
Last fall, Jade Gift opened a branch in Almaty, Kazakhstan; it plans another in Astana in June. Some of Kenjebek kyzy’s former students are looking to expand farther afield, too. Meanwhile, she is applying to European universities to pursue a master’s degree in marketing, hoping one day to open schools in the West.
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